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Feds grooming next generation of benevolent hackers

Thursday - 8/4/2011, 2:05pm EDT

Federal officials want kids to know that hacking can be fun — if they do it for the federal government. The first-ever Defcon Kids hacker conference kicks off this weekend in Las Vegas, Nextgov reports.

Computer-savvy kids will hear from the Army's computer crime investigative unit, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency, which is the Pentagon's code-cracking division.

Staff member from NSA's National Cryptologic Museum also will talk about code-making and code-breaking and demonstrate an authentic World War II-era Enigma machine that the Germans used to encrypt secret messages.

This story is part of Federal News Radio's daily Cybersecurity Update. For more cybersecurity news, click here.